


i was there when you fell from the clouds (and landed in the desert)

by everyotherfreckle



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, aka 4k of complete NONSENSE
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-05-29 15:48:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6382735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everyotherfreckle/pseuds/everyotherfreckle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>rey thinks it's odd that this boy that literally fell from the clouds could be so much like her.</p>
<p>;;</p>
<p>aka rey finds finn in the desert. shenanigans ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i was there when you fell from the clouds (and landed in the desert)

**Author's Note:**

> so basically in this hot piece of garbage fic there is no immediate danger to the galaxy. kylo ren is probably still out there somewhere being a giant emo baby but there's no first order or anything like that. finn just falls out of the sky for some inexplicable reason. that's pretty much all you need to know.
> 
> title from born's "american money". unbeta-d so all egregious errors are all mine.
> 
> kudos/comments are always appreciated! thanks in advance for reading!

Rey's coming back from Nima when she hears it. Her hand immediately tightens around her staff as she spins around trying to find the source.

If she isn't mistaken, what she's hearing is – groaning? Or some sort of moaning? Either way it's out of place. No one is normally this far out from Nima except for her. And if someone is out here, they're most likely not the friendly type.

When she walks a few steps to her right, the groaning gets louder. It's low and languid and whatever animal – or person – is making the sound cannot be in good shape.

Rey reaches a sand dune and peaks over, staff ready to fight off whatever she finds.

Well. She was not expecting this.

There's a boy lying face down at the bottom of the dune. He's groaning, hands clutching at the sand beneath him. It's quite an odd sight.

Rey slides down the sand hill and lands at his feet. She pokes him with the end of her staff just to see how responsive he is.

"Hey," she calls out to him. He offers a more pointed groan. "Are you okay?"

The boy makes a very labored effort to flip himself over on his back.

"I need – " he coughs. "I need water."

Rey reaches for her canteen, before stopping just short of tossing it to him. She's just now noticed his clothing. Black shirt, tan jacket strewn to the side of him, the heavy boots – he's clearly not dressed for Jakku.

"Who are you?" She asks. He mutters something else about water. "Tell me who you are and then I'll give you water."

There's a long stretch of silence before he speaks again.

" _Please_."

It's then she realizes she isn't going to get much out of him if he's dead, and it sort of seems like he could keel over at any moment.

So she tosses him her canteen. It ends up landing on his chest, a few droplets leaking out of the loosely closed cap onto his face. Once he realizes what it is, he ends up drenching his whole face before sitting up to drain the rest with his mouth.

Once Rey's convinced he's decently hydrated, she points the end of the staff towards him, just in case.

"Alright, you've had your water. Now, who are you?" She asks yet again.

He swallows and lifts his hands in a nonthreatening manner. "I'm Finn."

She raises an eyebrow. "Where do you come from, Finn?"

His eyes dart around nervously. Clearly he's hiding something.

"I – I, um," he points at her staff. "Can you lower that? It's making me uneasy."

"Not a chance. I haven't decided yet if you're dangerous or not."

He – _Finn_ – laughs. "Trust me, I'm not."

"I don't trust strange boys I find lying around in the desert." That makes him laugh again.

Finn stands, and, okay, he looked way smaller sitting there guzzling down the contents of the canteen. Now that he's standing in front of her – tall, muscular, _strong_ – she reasons he is much more than just some random desert dweller.

He reaches down to pick the canteen up and hands it to her with a smile. It's slight, but warm, friendly. Rey decides then maybe he isn't dangerous. She lowers her staff.

"Thank you." She says, taking the canteen from him.

"No, thank you. I thought I was gonna die out here." He looks around, squinting in the bright sunlight. "It's so _kriffing_ hot; how do you stand it?"

She shrugs. "You get used to it after a while." He turns back to her. He's quite young, probably a few years older than her. Rey's not used to being around people her age. It's...different. "Um, anyway, Nima's that way in case you wanna get somewhere that's a little less...sandy. I'm sure you can find someone there that'll help you get back to wherever it is you came from."

Rey turns on her heel, fully expecting that to be the end of their conversation. She didn't think he'd grab her arm to stop her from walking away.

"Wait! I don't want to go back." Finn winces and tries to explain himself again. "What I mean is, I'm not _looking_ to go back."

She shrugs out of his grip. "Okay, well someone can probably help you get to wherever it is you _are_ looking to go."

Once again, he grabs her arm. She's extremely close to whacking him with her staff.

"How about I stay with you? At least for the night. It'll be much easier than walking all the way to the outpost."

And now she laughs. Hard. This guy has got to be suffering from some sort of heat-related madness or something.

"Absolutely not. You can find a place to stay at – "

Finn groans again, this time out of annoyance rather than exhaustion. "Look, I've heard about Nima, okay? The only way anyone's gonna help me is if I have credits or something to trade and I have neither of those things. If I go there, I'm gonna be stranded. Just please can I stay the night with you so I can have a little time to figure out my next move?"

He looks at her, eyes all big and sad and pleading and, sure, Rey is cautious but she isn't heartless.

She rolls her eyes. "Fine. Just for the night, though." She can't be sure but she thinks she sees him pump his fist in the air out of the corner of her eye. "But you have to carry my stuff."

Finn grabs the bag of extra scraps off of her shoulder and throws it over his own with a toothy grin. Rey (very reluctantly!) smiles back.

"Sure thing…" He trails off, face scrunching up. "I'm sorry, I don't even know your name."

And she could probably chastise him for days on how foolish it was of him to ask someone for shelter without first even knowing his or her name but she settles for just simply telling him.

"I'm Rey."

He grins again. "Rey. My desert angel."

She scoffs – did he _really_ just say that? – and starts off for home with Finn striding right alongside her.

* * *

So, Finn talks. A lot.

It isn't that it's annoying – because halfway through his story about an encounter he once had with a particularly rouge mop, Rey actually finds herself enjoying the conversation – it's just that it's...different. Rey's so used to being alone, it's strange to have someone to talk to. Even if she isn't doing any of the talking.

"Alright," she says once they approach her home. "Here we are. Home sweet home."

Finn's eyes are wide and wondrous. "You live in an AT-AT?"

He asks as if he's completely marveled by it. Rey's never thought of her AT-AT as anything spectacular but it seems like Finn sure does.

He walks inside, hands running along the walls. "Okay, this is pretty cool."

Rey passes him, taking her bag off of his shoulder. "Thanks, but don't get used to it. You're gone in the morning, remember?"

"Unfortunately." He mutters. She pretends not to hear.

"So, um," she starts. "I guess you can just pick a spot around here to sleep. I think I may have an extra blanket but – "

Rey knew it would only be a matter of time before Finn saw the markings on the wall. She just didn't think it'd be this soon. He walks over to it, runs his fingers over each one.

"What's all this?" He asks.

"Oh, um," Rey ducks her head. She isn't embarrassed by it, but it is an awfully personal thing and she's only just met him. "That's pretty much how long I've been here. On Jakku, I mean."

Finn looks at her over his shoulder. "You've been here this long? By yourself?" She nods and he narrows his eyes. "You don't have a family?"

And is _that_ ever a loaded question.

"It's okay. I don't either." He says when she doesn't respond. "Well, I think I do, I just don't know them."

Rey thinks it's odd that this boy that literally fell from the clouds could be so much like her. Still, the topic of her family is a conversation she'd rather not have so she changes the subject.

"Have you decided where you'll go tomorrow?"

He shakes his head. "Maybe I'll just stay here on Jakku. I hear the locals are pretty hospitable people." He flashes a smile her way and she rolls her eyes.

"No, you should go somewhere else. It's so empty here. You could go some place that's cooler, greener – "

Finn interrupts her with a click of his tongue. "Sounds to me like you're the one that wants to go somewhere else."

And deep down – even if she absolutely refuses to believe it to be true – maybe Rey does want to be somewhere other than Jakku. She doesn't want to waste her life here. She wants to see other planets and experience all that the galaxy has to offer.

But she can't. Not yet, at least. Not until her family comes back for her.

"Well then you might want to check your hearing because I am perfectly content here." She says, moving to go lie in her hammock.

"Ah, you said content, not happy. Interesting choice of words." He walks over to her and plops down right next to the hammock. He sits against the wall, caging his hands behind his head. "I know it can't be the weather, so what's really keeping you from leaving?"

Rey reaches down to pull off her boots, purposely ignoring him. Finn takes her silence as license to keep talking.

"Let me guess, you can't leave Jakku because you're a wanted criminal and this is the only planet where the authorities aren't looking for you."

"Wow, you got it right on the first try. I'm impressed." She deadpans.

He laughs and she's quickly figuring out his laugh is somewhat contagious.

"Okay so you're not a wanted criminal. Maybe you can't leave because – " He suddenly gets this worried look on his face. "Please don't tell me you can't leave because you've got some ridiculously attractive boyfriend and the two of you have vowed to spend the rest of your days together on this planet."

Rey turns to face him. "His name is Kai and, fair warning, he'll probably be back in the morning so you might wanna leave before he finds you because he has quite the temper."

Finn stares at her completely horrified before rolling his eyes. "Come on, Rey, be serious! I wanna know why you can't leave."

She figures she might as well just tell him now or he'll spend all night asking.

"I'm waiting for someone."

Finn says nothing more, just hums in response as if he understands exactly what she means and makes himself more comfortable against the wall.

There's an awkward blanket of silence over them until he decides to break it.

"So just to be sure, no boyfriend then?"

Rey tosses a pillow at his head.

* * *

Rey wakes up in the middle of the night to strong arms wrapped around her and a soft shushing in her ear. She momentarily forgets that she's not alone tonight and her instincts – telling her that whoever is holding her must be an intruder – start to kick in. Before she can go into full survival mode, she actually listens to what's being whispered in her ear.

"Hey, hey, hey. Rey, listen to me. You're fine, okay? I've got you. You're fine. You're safe." Finn's voice is soft and low and just enough to get her to stop thrashing around in his arms.

She can feel his chest rising and falling steadily against her back and tears stinging her eyes. She wipes angrily at them before turning in his arms.

"You were having a nightmare, I think." He says with a weak smile. "And you were shivering too so I thought I'd try to warm you up, help you out a little."

Nightmares are nothing new, she has them almost every night, but having someone there with her to comfort her is _completely_ new.

Rey feels small as she curls against Finn's chest and relaxes into his hold on her. "Thank you." She mumbles into his shirt.

She feels a pair of lips pressed against her hair. "You're welcome."

It's completely stupid, dangerous even, to be sleeping with a stranger, but somehow being this close to this particular stranger feels overwhelmingly safe.

And she has yet to figure out why.

* * *

When Rey wakes up, she's noticeably a lot more alone than she was last night. For a brief moment she wonders if she had just imagined Finn crawling into her hammock to keep her warm and help her through a particularly terrible nightmare. However, the jacket draped around her shoulders indicates that last night was very real.

She cuddled with a stranger.

A stranger that is currently nowhere to be found.

Rey climbs out of her hammock, slipping her arms through the holes in Finn's jacket – only because it happens to be oddly chill this morning; that's the only reason, she swears – in the process. It isn't like she lives in a great big home so a few quick glances around tells her that Finn isn't inside. She slides on her boots and walks outside in case he might be out there.

Sure enough, she finds him just outside the AT-AT, sitting in the sand making small structures out of the stuff.

"Hey," she says to get his attention. He turns to her, huge grin plastered on his face. "Why are you out here?"

He shrugs. "I woke up before you and I didn't wanna disturb you. You looked pretty comfortable." He dusts the sand off of his hands and stands up. "Nice jacket, by the way."

Rey gives him a playful shrug just because of how smug he looks.

"I'm gonna need it back, though." Finn says, lips pursed. "You know, since you're kicking me out and all. It may have some value at the outpost."

Oh yeah. He's supposed to be leaving. She almost forgot about that.

"Actually," she starts, kicking the sand beneath her right foot. "I was thinking I could probably stand living with you for a few more days. Just until you actually figure out what you wanna do."

Finn stares at her blankly and Rey's beginning to wonder if she even spoke at all when he suddenly wraps his arms around her middle and lifts her in the air, giving her a twirl.

"Thank you, thank you, _thank you_ , Rey!" He places her back down but keeps his arms around her. "You know, I had a feeling I'd grow on you."

She shakes her head with a laugh and pushes him away, releasing his grip on her in the process. "Don't flatter yourself, I'm just being nice."

He smirks at her, arms folding across his chest. "It's my jokes, isn't it? That's why you want me around? Or, no! It's my devilishly good looks. I bet that's it."

Rey rolls her eyes – he's such a spaz – and goes back inside with her (temporary) housemate right behind her.

* * *

Finn was only supposed to stick around for a few more days, only he and Rey have been living together for almost a whole month now.

It's even gotten to the point where he's become a part of her routine.

They wake up, eat a bit of insta–bread and head out to go scavenge. In the beginning, Finn used to have a suffocating hold on her – the first day she swore she was going to pass out before they arrived at their destination – when they rode on her speeder but he's since become more at ease with it. He's also proven to not only be good company – she's starting to look forward to his ridiculous stories – but he's also a nice strong pair of arms to help her. After they've gathered all they can, they head to Nima to trade it in for portions. Finn helps her clean everything they found and the older women absolutely _adore_ him. They like to make him clothes. In return, he totally hams it up for them.

(Some of the ladies seem to think Finn's her partner and no matter how many times she tells them he isn't, they just smile knowingly and go on about ' _the way they look at each other_ '.

Whatever that's supposed to mean.)

When they've gotten their portions, they head back home, eat and either lie around talking or, more recently, play stupid games they've invented.

(Rey's favorite is the one where they see who can build the biggest sand structure. Mostly because it isn't even a game anymore. They have quite the little city built behind her home.)

After they've effectively tired themselves out, they try and sleep. They always start off in different areas – Rey in her hammock and Finn lying on the ground below her – but somehow they always both end up in the hammock by morning.

Finn says its because she always shivers at night and she doesn't seem to have such bad nightmares when she's being held and he can't just lie on the floor and watch her suffer.

Rey tries not to think too much about it.

Point is, Finn's more or less become a part of Rey's life. So much so that the thought of him leaving carries a lot more weight than it used to.

One night, after he's climbed into her hammock and held her and kissed her hair until she calmed down, Rey realizes just how…fond of this boy she's become. She starts to wonder if he's just as fond of her or if everything he does for her – the way he insists on trying to make her smile seemingly at all times – is just to ensure he has a place to live.

The thought ends up keeping her awake that night.

* * *

"Why do you always kiss the top of my head whenever you get in the hammock with me?"

Finn stops loading the speeder to frown at her question.

She knows she's been acting strange since she's realized her fondness for him, but she can't help it. The possibility that Finn only sees her as a means for housing rather than _something else_ entirely has been gnawing at her. And she also knows he's noticed she's been acting strange. Might as well get the conversation out of the way now.

"I don't know, it just seemed like the thing to do?" He answers with a shrug of his left shoulder.

Rey fixes her hands on her hips. "Well you shouldn't do it anymore. Any of it. Kissing my head, holding me, sleeping in the same hammock – it's all awfully intimate and it's the kind of stuff people who are in relationships do and we're just housemates. Temporarily."

Finn scoffs, a slight smile playing at his lips. "So you want me to just lie there while you nearly freeze to death and have those horrible nightmares?"

"If it bothers you, you can always leave." She doesn't mean it, she really, _really_ doesn't mean it, but she says it anyway.

He pins her with a searching stare and it's quite unsettling. "Did I do something wrong?"

And Rey realizes she isn't good at _this_ , at having conversations like this. She's never had to tell someone how she felt about them or how she would feel if they were just to up and leave. After all, she never got the chance to do any of that with her family. She's been alone for so long, she just doesn't know how to express what she's feeling. And she's so frustrated and annoyed at her inability to just _say what she feels_ that her eyes end up watering and – great, she's about to cry. Perfect.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Finn rushes to her, hands coming up to rub her arms soothingly, which is _not_ helping. He's always so kriffing comforting, it's hard to be cross with him. "I'm sorry, okay? If it bothers you that much I won't do it anymore – "

"No, no, it doesn't bother me at all, actually. It's just – " she takes a deep breath. "I like it when you kiss my head and hold me and I'm pretty sure I sleep better with you in the hammock, it's just – I've been on my own for a very long time and I'm not used to always being around someone let alone someone I actually kind of care for. A lot."

It takes a moment for the look of realization to settle on his face.

"I guess what I mean is – I like you Finn and it would be really kriffing terrible if you left. So this is me, you know. Asking you not to."

"Rey," he laughs and it only bruises her ego a tiny bit. "I don't know if you've noticed but I haven't exactly shown any intention of leaving." He smiles at her in the way that makes her stomach feel strange. "Personally I would _love_ to leave Jakku, it's kind of the worst planet, but I would gladly stay here with you. Because I care for you, too. A lot."

Rey laughs at his little bit of teasing. "Well that's good to know."

Finn runs his hands down her arms and takes her hands in his. He runs his thumbs over her knuckles before placing a kiss to the top of her head.

And, yeah, telling him was definitely the right thing to do.

* * *

It takes a while – exactly another two months – but somewhere between scrubbing rusty scraps and sharing her insta–bread with Finn, Rey realizes she has to leave Jakku. _They_ have to leave Jakku.

She isn’t sure she believes in signs from the galaxy, but if she did, Finn would surely be one. He literally _fell from the sky_ and right into her path. It’s almost as if the galaxy dropped her means of leaving this planet right at her feet. But even though she can see herself leaving and living the rest of her life with Finn on some far away planet, the thought of leaving and possibly missing out on ever seeing her family again fills her with dread.

Jakku is the last little of bit of her family she has left. It’s her only connection to them, really. It’s the one place she knows with absolute certainty that they’ve been and it’s the place they know with absolute certainty she is. To leave would be risking them never finding her. But Finn –

Finn is a walking, talking reminder of what could be. Of all the places she can go and experiences she can have – Finn’s her future. A future she actually _wants_.

The choice between her past and her future ended up being a lot less difficult than she thought it would be.

“Okay, I think I got everything you told me grab.” Finn announces, rummaging through the heavy bag hanging off of his shoulder. He looks up at Rey, eyes soft and full of concern. “Are you sure about this? Because I want you to know that I am totally okay staying here the rest of my life if that’s what you want.”

“It’s not what I want.” Rey grabs hold of his hand before sparing a glance at the ship they’re meant to board. She can’t remember the name of the planet it’s supposed to take them to, just that it’s supposed to be cool and green and everything Jakku isn’t. “What I want is to get on this ship with you and start a new life. Our life.”

Finn pins her with an inquisitive look, as if he’s trying to figure out if she’s being honest. Which she absolutely is.

“Just so you know, us leaving here doesn’t mean that you’ll never see your family again. While we’re out getting our fresh start, and being the cutest couple in the galaxy of course, we’ll try and find them. I promise.”

Sometimes Rey wonders what she ever did to deserve him.

She rises up on the tips of her toes and places a kiss on his cheek. “You know, I’m really glad I found you in the desert that day.”

He laughs, throwing his arm around her shoulder and leading her to the ship’s loading ramp. “So am I.”


End file.
